So, the students have left Oz. We left this morning and made it to Auckland and they are now on their way to Los Angeles. I did not go with them, but they are in good hands with Becca. I am giving an invited research presentation at the Universit of Otago in New Zealand on Thursday. It was a great time with the students, they were very good, I guess now I just have some grading to do. Keep checking the blog, I have a couple of photos I hope to get up later.

Yesterday was Australia Day. It sounded like all the students had a great time. Australia Day is similar to 4th of July for us. Many use it as a chance to spend time with their families, have a barbeque and enjoy the country they live in. Many went to St. Kilda to check out beaches and shops. Others went and explored the city.

 

Becca and I started the morning at Town Hall with the flag ceremony which was the start of the parade. The parade was very entertaining and showed a lot of the cultural diversity present in Melbourne. Above you will see pictures from the Flag Rasing Ceremoney. The first is Becca showing her love for Australia, the second is a ukele band that performed prior. Below are pictures of some of our students showing their Australia spirit and a picture from the parade.

  

Following the parade we stopped for a BBQ in Federation Square where we grabbed a Banger and Roll, otherwise known as a Sausage and Roll which was amazing. We then walked around the city and ended up in Treasury Gardens where there was a concert and other activities and booths supported the indigneous community. We folloowed this up by seeing the duck race. You might be able to make out Olympic gold medalist Grant Hackett in the boat doing the commentary, it was quite hilarious hearing him talk about this rubber duck race with took about a half an hour. We then went to my favorite restaurant, Chocolate Buddha, and called it a night. I spent it watching the Open and grading exams. Others watched concerts and fireworks.

  

Today was a “free day” for the students. I put it in quotation marks because I did have them get up for their last assessment at 8 am. Following that, many of them went exploring the city. Many went to the Melbourne aquarium and to the Sky Deck to get a good view of the city. Others (myself included) decided to go back to the Australian Open. Becca decided to be more cultural and hit the Melbourne Gaol and re-enact the trial of Ned Kelly. She said it was quite fun.

At the Australian Open, I spent the day watching many of the doubles matches including Venus and Serena play two Australians which was quite impressive. We also watched Mardy Fish and John Isner win their third round match as they upset the 7th seed. That night I had passes for Rod Laver Arena and had the opportunity to watch Jelena Dokic, who has recently aquired Australian citizenship win a tough three set match. It was a three hour match and quite the environment. We then watch Bagdaditis and Djokivic (sorry for spelling). Well, we watch part of the match, it was after midnight when we left and came home and watched the final set. It was a long day.

On Friday and Saturday, we were picked up by our guides from Halls Outdoor Education - Andy, Jarred, and Phil - to head out on one of the greatest drives in the world, The Great Ocean Road.  But, before we got to the scenic drive, the students were able to take a surfing lesson from the Westcoast Surf School while Dr. Hall and I took pictures and were amazed at how well they could “hang ten.”  I think almost everyone was able to get up on the board and I know they were all excited to get to wear a wetsuit again!  Ha.

Once on the Great Ocean Road, we stopped at several lookouts for beautiful views and lots of great pictures.  We stopped in Torquey - the birthplace of major surf brands Rip Curl and Quiksilver.  We also stopped at Bells Beach - an important locale for surfers and a major spot in the movie Point Break.  We also stopped at Koala Cove to take a stroll and saw close to ten koalas in their natural environment.  Everyone resisted the urge to climb up and cuddle the snuggly marsupials and opted for some ice cream and popsicles instead.

After the koalas, we headed to our hostel for the evening where we were treated to an Aussie barbecue (complete with kangaroo!) and a lesson in cricket.  Afterwards, the students enjoyed each other’s company and the lovely coastal summer weather.  Here you can see a group playing a really intense round of Uno. 

In the morning, we stopped and did Maits Rest walk through the temperant Victoria rainforest.  The students were troopers through the rainy, cool weather and were able to see a few HUGE Mountain Ash trees and other vegetation.

Many of us had been anticipating the next stop and were amazed at the beauty of the 12 Apostles.  These limestone rocks were formed by natural erosion and were really a site to see.  The guides did a great job of explaining how the Victorian government was doing its best to preserve the area.

Our final stop was at Loch Ard gorge, where the Loch Ard was shipwrecked in 1878 and Tom Pearce saved Eva Carmichael.  The views were gorgeous and everythings always better when accompanied by a romantic story told in an Australian accent. :)!

  

We spent Thursday at the Australian Open. It was a good time had by all. The first couple of pictures are of Becca and a couple of students getting in the mood to watch Serena by having their faces painted. I also included a picture of some other fanatical fans so that you do not think we were the “crazy” ones.

Many of the students (as did Becca and I) upgraded our seats to the Hisense Court so that we could see some better people, specifically Serena. I stuck around a bit longer and saw a great doubles match by Mardy Fish and John Isner. John is from Greensboro and was previously NCAA champion (plus he is 6′8″). Then I capped the night off by watching James Blake (of USA) win a nice three set match as twighlight came.

    

Tennis wasn’t the only thing you could see, you could also see some concerts. Here is Natalie Bassingthwaite performing a free concert.

 

I will apologize for the late posts, internet is not as convenient in Melbourne as in other cities, I am going to do a couple of quick posts and then try to add pictures later. Also, we will be away from internet for a couple of days so will try to post as soon as I can.

 Yesterday we did a day trip out to Sorrento to swim with the dolphins and do a hike at Cape Schank. Both groups had a great deal of success in seeing plenty of dolphins and learning from Stefan and Jess about the dolphins in their natural habitat. However, only the morning group had the opportunity to be in the bay with the dolphins. Either way both groups seemed to have positive experiences and did have the opportunity to snorkel with the Australia sea lions. The highlight many will tell you was the homemade scones that were provided by the boat, yum yum.

  

 While one group was swimming with the dolphins, the other group did a beautiful hike around Cape Schanck. It is one of my favorite places to explore, the water is as clear as can be and has made some interesting rock pools that have interesting flora and fauna. The big favorite was the sea stars. The morning group also had the chance to see the red belly black snake, another venomous variety.

Hello all, just wanted to let you know that we arrived safely in Melbourne. I just finished a delicious meal in Little Italy and am on my way back to get some rest. We have a 6am pickup tomorrow morning for our daily activities. Additionally, the presidential inauguration is on television here starting at 3 am so I think I am going to get up and watch it. Hope you are all surviving the cold on the East coast. Take care, we are on our last leg in Australia. Only 1 week left.

 G’day from beautiful, sweaty, humid Cairns!  The students, Dr. Hall, and I had the chance of a lifetime today and got to go snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef.  Last night’s two hour session from Reef Teach was a great primer for today’s activities and I think it helped everyone feel more prepared to identify the different fish, coral, and creatures. 

We met at 7:15 this morning and headed to the terminal where we boarded the Passions of Paradise boat and started our day.  After a two hour ride (some got seasick but managed it well) and some snorkeling instructions, we all zipped up our blue stinger suits to protect us from jellies and the sun (note:  we all looked like blue teletubbies).  With masks, snorkels, and fins we dived in and spent the next couple of hours snorkeling around Michaelmas Cay.  It was another one of those moments where I thought, “Wow.  I can’t believe I’m actually snorkeling… in Australia… on the Great Barrier Reef.”  This course has supplied many of those moments.  Anyways, we saw lots of different fish - including the Clown Anemonefish which most of you will know as Nemo! 

 Then, we loaded back on the boat and enjoyed a great lunch.  Snorkeling had been more of a workout than many of us expected and we were excited to get some grub and reenergize for the afternoon.  After lunch, we headed to Paradise Reef.  We were brought to the shore of the reef on a glass bottom boat and then snorkeled the 200 meters back to the Passions for Paradise.  This was my favorite of the two places because of the clarity of the water and all of the many different types of fish we were able to see.  Some students were even able to see a Reef Shark hanging out on the bottom!  I’m sure they’ll have some good pictures to share.

The ride back to Cairns offered many a chance to lay out on the deck, take a nap, or watch the crew members due some puzzling card tricks.  This was definitely my favorite activity so far and I think the students enjoyed it as well. Â

Today was a day when we did not have anything else going on until later in the evening. Many of the students used it as a chance to sleep in, spend some time shopping and exploring Cairns. In the evening we met up with Deb Poole at Reef Teach where we had about a 2 hour lecture talking to us about the different fish and coral that we will see on the Great Barrier Reef. Additionally, she explained to our class a number of the environmental and conservation issues. I think the students will find it very helpful when we go out on the Great Barrier Reef tomorrow.

 A couple of us used te early part of the day to visit Kuranda which is a small town up in the mountains. We decided to take the Skyrail up and then the train back down. The Skyrail is an interesting story related to ecotourism. They built the whole thing by doing limited damage to the trees in the area. Much of it was put together by using helicopters to drop in the poles and such. Quite an accomplishment, hope you enjoy some of the photos. The views going up and down were quite impressive.  The town of Kuranda is a small quaint town that had a lot of shopping. I was most interested in the dragon fruit and lime sorbet, quite amazing.

 

Here are a couple of pictures of Barron Falls taken from each the Sky Rail and Train. Barron Falls provides a large amount of hydroelectric power to the town of Cairns.

 

Finally, here are a couple of pictures from the train down.

 

We have made it up to Cairns where it is hot and humid as always. Cairns was recently hit with a Category 1 cyclone so we came at the right time, but it is still recovering. Additionally, it is the wet season so we have been dodging rain quite a bit, luckily yesterday we were able to get through our Daintree tour with minimal rain. The Daintree is known for being one of the oldest rainforests in the world and had a great amount of biodiversity. It is also known to be the place where the Rainforest meets the Reef (Great Barrier Reef) which may be the only place in the world where this happens.

 The first pictures is of Rick who was my guide showing us the view from a canopy walk. The second picture is from our walk down to our barbeque site. They pulled out all the stops and had grilled steak, sausages and Pearl Perch. It was quite delicious. The third picture is from another board walk that we did looking at all the flora and fauna.

  

Here is a fun picture of the Golden Orb spider. Two unique things about this big spider: 1) its web is golden hence the name you might be able to see it in the photo. Second, the big ones are the females, there are usually very small males with her and will be eaten after they mate. Watch out guys.

The next few photos are of different views of the area that we experienced, thought you might enjoy.

  

The last two photos are of a crocodile that we saw on our Croc Cruise as well as a Tree Frog. Both were very interesting.